A Repelling Defense
Cobalt Plains Brilliant blue in the bright, golden sunshine, these plains extend for as far as the optic can see, smooth and flat except for a wide crater to the north, another example of Unicron's power. The vivid coloration comes from the cobalt in the steel alloy of which these plains consist. The cobalt produces another effect as well... Charged by the immense power behind one of Unicron's eye beams, the cobalt alloy absorbed and retained part of that energy, magnetizing most of the plain. For those who travel here, both on the ground and in the air, it is not only a doubling in their mass from the pull of the magnetism, but it mildly disrupts their internal instrumentation as well. The Cobalt Plains. Inconspicious looking enough, being such wide open space... but looks are deceiving considering the magnetic backwash left in the area from one of Unicron's attacks that just refuse to go away. He thinks it'd be a rediculous proposal for a army to try and march through the area... but knows better than to doubt the Decepticons would try the tactically insane to try and catch them off guard. Already in the air performing a few preliminary sensor surveys, Jetfire was finding that even his powerful engines and shielded electronics designed for the oddities of space exploration were having trouble dealing with the magnetic fluxations. Hopefully with some fortification the Decepticons would decide to just leave the place alone. (repose for Vinny) A human exo-suit. Typically an odd sight on Cybertron, for the most part, but in recent weeks, it had been more and more common to see them, helping the Autobots defend their homeworld against the Decepticons. Vince had been involved in two of the major battles for Cybertron's territories so far, and he was still nursing a few of the wounds from the last one, against Galvatron and Shockwave. A couple cracked ribs, and a lot of bruising. But it didn't seem to be slowing him down any. He might be human, but he was tough as nails, and he'd proved it on more than a few occasions. The Ares walked into the area, and Vince swore under his breath. All his instruments were pretty much off-line, from all the magnetic interference, and he was relying on his skills, his instincts, and the thankfully clear cockpit to navigate. He had volunteered his services as a mechanical engineer, not that the Autobots really needed his skills, but he was doing everything he could to help. This would also give him an opportunity to learn more about Cybertronian technology, and that was his ultimate goal over the course of the next few months. Flipping on his radio, it wasn't getting much more than static. He'd have to find a way to shield the exo's systems against magnetic interference. So he flipped that off, and flipped on the external loudspeakers and called up to Jetfire. "See anything moving? I'm not sure I'm up for a Decepticon attack today!" First Aid is trucking along the ground, happily having accompanied Jetfire and Vince on this outing. Not super thrilled about building a weapon, the Protectobot would rather some defensive qualities be applied here. <> he emits over the broadband, transforming quickly and surveying the surroundings. The veritech craft makes a final pass and banks around to come for a landing. Dropping low to the ground as he slows to landing speed Jetfire transforms out his legs first, for a brief passing looking like the middle mode of a certain other giant space robot until his feet touch down and once stablized he rises the rest of the way into robot mode. "No, nothing," he replies to both human and Protectobot, shaking his head a bit. "And even my hardware is having difficulty in the magnetism, but that's what we're counting on. If the Decepticons -are- crazy enough to try and invade through here, and I wouldn't put it past them, hopefully the interference and some well placed defenses will be enough to repel them." Watching Jetfire come in for a landing, Vince grins. He'll never get over the awe of watching the Autobots. They were truly magnificent beings. Of course, he was biased, since they were mechanical beings, and he was a mechanical engineer, as well as an exo-pilot. "Yeah, this interference makes my exo pretty much useless for anything except walking around. Even my radio's not working on the local channels. Maybe when we get done out here, you guys can help me work on shielding this thing from the magnetics?" Looking around at the rather unassuming area, he grins. "Yeah, I wouldn't put it past the Decepticons to try to come through here. They're definitely stupid enough. They'd probably rely on the fact that your systems would be just as badly affected. So, what're we building out here today?" "Oh, that's a good question Vince. While Jetfire hasn't revealed any 'plans' to me yet, I am in favor for some defensive emplacements ... perhaps something like a forcefield generator utilizing this area's unique magnetic properties, or a stun ray to ward off attackers?" First Aid scoffs, looking through his records for any basic schematics they could implement here. Dee-Kal arrives by foot, not by air. The magnetics round the Cobalt Plains are not impossible to work with, but it requires a little familiarity with the environment to operate in a 'normal' manner. The teenage Junkette approaches the team calmly and joins Vince Larsen; standing beside the exo, she looks to him. Jetfire chuckles a bit as he crouchs down to be closer to the level of the others. He doesn't really like towering over everyone, but his size has become a necessity. "I'd be happy to help you some time, Vince. Prehaps some of the same shielding I designed to protect my scanners from spacial anomolties. But that's for later... Ah, hello Dee-Kal." He nods a bit to the later arrival. "Good, we've got plenty of people to work on this." "That's the general idea, First Aid. In this situation, the best offense would be a good defense." A magnetic forcefield? Haven't there been reports of a Seeker flying around with a similar ability lately? Curious. But Jetfire shrugs that thought off and focuses. "Shields, barricades, impendiments to movement. Things that will make it easier for Autobots to defend the location are our best bet here." The little Junkion smiles and bows her head mildly to the human. She straightens up and nods to Jetfire, then to First Aid. Returning her focus to Vinny, she gives him a quizzical expression, head tilted. Standing there, Vince is looking around contemplating a few things when Dee-Kal comes walking up. Looking over at the young Junkion, he grins at her through the clear cockpit and offers a wave with one of the viciously clawed hands of the Ares. "Hey Dee-Kal. Welcome to the party." Looking up at Jetfire, despite his crouching, he still towers over the 12 foot tall Ares, Vince grins. "Don't some of the Decepticons use magnetic fields for weapons and defense? This area wouldn't be much of a problem for them. Maybe we could try using an Electro-magnetic Pulse generator on a variable frequency to just shut them down when they come into the area? That would take out any kind of magnetics advantage any of them would have here." First Aid manages to drag some spare metal sheets out of the trailer they brought with them, whipping out an arc welder and cutting them into more managable pieces. "Well, what are you all waiting for? A written invitation on stationary? Please, lend a hand ... that's the terran phrase, right Vince? What troubles me is, what would possess one to want to borrow someone's appendage from them? Wouldn't it be much more useful if said person just aided you in your endeavor?" the Protectobot waxes on a tangent, still cutting the sheet. Dee-Kal looks from Vince and his question to Jetfire and the Autobot's reply. Her optics remain calm as she crouches down to retrieve several scraps of blue from the ground, almost like pebbles in shape and size. They resist her attempts to pick them up easily. Slightly vexed, the young Junkion yanks harder. She succeeds in picking up the fragments. A green haze flickers and sputters before stabilising behind her. The Junkette stows her prizes in subspace, then the glow fades. Jetfire taps a finger against his chin thoughtfully. "That's not a bad idea, Vince. If they're focusing on repelling the effects of this area, they might not notice a difference wavelength until they're hit with the pulse." He chuckles a bit at First Aid's confusion over the saying, and gets back to his feet. "The other idea I was considering is making some blockades, that retract into the ground here to be hidden. Simple pnuematics and gearwork so the magnetism doesn't interfer with their deployment, but it would give defenders a superior position to cover themselves while the invaders would still be out in the open." He rummages through the parts a bit, hmmm. "Magnetism repels the same wavelength and attracts opposing charges. Presumably a magnetics user would charge themselves with the same modulation as the fields here to resist them, so an opposite modulation would theoretically debilitate them." Dee-Kal picks up a couple more pebbles. She holds them between her finger and thumb, a few inches apart. Then she lightly tosses them into the air... Vince chuckles at First Aid and nods. "That's the expression, yeah. It's not meant to be taken literally, though. I'm not real sure where the expression originated, but it just means 'help me out'." Glancing down at Dee-Kal when the young Junkion tries to pick up the little 'pebbles', he catches the odd glow behind her and blinks once, then watches it vanish as she puts the stones into subspace. "Dee-Kal, what did you just pick up? There was some kind of weird glow behind you before you put them up." His curiosity about that glow almost made him miss Jetfire's musings, and he looks up suddenly and nods. "Yeah, we'd need to test that to be 100% certain, but that's my basic idea. Maybe we could work with that idea, and focus it into a narrow beam for more widespread use in the field, too. But that'll be a project for sometime later." Jetfire replies to Vince "Just a ranged dispersal pulse would be best for now, so it doesn't need to rely on sophisticated targetting systems that could be fouled up.. but a focused version is something to keep in mind for potential utilization elsewhere." Setting his dabblings aside for the moment Jetfire picks one of the larger sheets out of the trailer. "Dispersal pulse, aimed away from our entrenched defenders... prehaps we can work some general shielding into the barricades to grant them some relief from the magnetic fields in gneeral, too," the scientist muses as he goes over what they actually brought with. "I'll leave that to you Jetfire, for now I'll handle some minor defensive shielding." First Aid replies, welding two sheet pieces together and setting it up like a blast shield. Dee-Kal plays with her pebbles and grins with mischief as she successfully makes the "Oidz Noise" - a strange, special-effects-type noise from interacting with the magnets. She repeats her subspace storage routine, green glow, then no glow. Those two magnets work; they're keepers! Done playing, the little Junkion looks to Vince, then glances over to First Aid... Walking over to the trailer of supplies they brought, Vince also looks over what was brought. He was sort of a late addition to the project, so he wasn't sure what had been brought to work with, but he was a master of jury-rigging and scrounging, so there shouldn't be any problems. He also had a lot of background work in weapon mechanics, so this should be a cake-walk for the young human. "What do we have here? Some sheet metal, looks like a few generators of some kind, maybe, down there at the bottom of the pile? Lemme look around the area, see what's just laying around we can use. There's always something useful someone just tossed aside." Turning, he again sees that strange glow, and then the source. Those pebbles that Dee-Kal was playing with! Oh, that brings an idea into his brain! Looking immediately at the ground, he spies several more of those little rock-looking things and smiles. "I think I've got an idea. We have any tubing in that trailer, Jetfire? I think we can make a cannon that'll work as weapon /and/ defense. Kill two birds with one stone....Literally." Chuckling, he dropped down to one knee to get a closer look at the magnetic stones that Dee-Kal had spotted first. Jetfire raises a brow slightly as Vince seems to get an idea from watching the Junkette play... That's the sort of innovation he likes to see though. "What's on your mind, Vince, I'm all audials." He shifts a few of the plates, setting them aside for First Aid to build the defensive shields out of, so he can get to one of the generators Vince saw. "If not, I can easily round some of these smaller panels into a tube shape." Chuckling to himself, Vince examines the small magnetic stones for a moment, pushing them around, or trying to. They seem to be held in place pretty well by the magnetics. But that was perfect, for what the young human had in mind. Standing again, he turns to Jetfire. "These stones here, the little blue ones, seem to be highly magnetized. If we can fire them far enough into the air, the magnetic fields between the ground, and the stones, will create some serious disturbances in the air, and also pull the stones back down at some incredible speeds, which would turn them into, essentially, micro-missiles. Their small size would aid them in punching through just about anything, at sufficient speeds. They'd tear right through the lightly armored jets the Decepticons use for their alternate modes." Dee-Kal follows Vince with her optics, but the junior Junkette gets the feeling that she *should* be doing... something constructive. She came to investigate the human and his welfare. Might as well make herself useful, too. Humming a tune from Bob The Builder to herself, Dee-Kal joins First Aid and flexes her wrist, selects the welding tool from the underside, nods down her visor to protect her optics and proceeds to cut some spare sheets into smaller panels. "Human ingenuity at work! That's a wonderful idea, Vince. And makes use of what's already present here, to boot." Jetfire pulls the small generator he was digging from the trailer out and holds it up to examine it. "If the stones are magnetized, a launch system is simple with the alternate magnetic field to fling it out of the tube. Like a railgun, almost." He sets the generator aside, and digs around a bit more. "The fluxation from the interacting magnetic fields and the magnetized stone would play havok with any Decepticons struck, magnetic users or not." The young Junkion finishes cutting up one panel section. She lifts. She frowns. Lifts again... then YANKS- Vince grins inside his Ares and nods emphatically. "Exactly! The magnetic fields would do some serious damage to the airborn Decepticons, forcing them to the ground, where the stones would act like bullets coming down on their heads, and it would seriously even out any fights, effectively cancelling any velocity or agility based evasions the faster jets would be able to normally take. They'd be forced to retreat before they got even part way through this area!" Vince is apparently enjoying himself, as he moves to the trailer once again, to take a look at the generator, and find out what kind it was specifically, and also to look for some tubing, or the materials to make the tubing from. Whee..! The yank proves successful - too successful. Junior Protectojunk and metal panel go flying - with a loud clatter, she and her metal section wind up on the ground several yards away. The metal panel looks unperturbed. Dee-Kal scowls, but says nothing. "Interesing idea indeed." First Aid adds, still busily at work constructing a few more blast shields. "But the questions remains, will you be able to accomplish it?" Dee-Kal sits up and lifts the panel from the ground; this time with ease. The area is not evenly magnetised, evidently. Rising to her feet she rejoins First Aid and sets the panel on his heap of blast shield bits. Using part of the trailer as a workbench, Dee-Kal finds it far easier to weld some of the various bits together. Rather like a kid cheating in an exam, the Junkette keeps looking over First's way to establish what he's doing and then copying his actions... "Better to try, fail and learn, than not try at all I say," Jetfire replies to First Aid with a bit of a chuckle. Despite the serious overtones of what's been happening on Cybertron and why they were out here he's been trying to keep a positive outlook on things. "Making use of what's already out here also cut down on our own resources used, so it's worth a shot -- Eh?" He looks up as Deek goes tumbling backwards. "Be careful, there's pockets of greater or lesser wavelength polarization. I was trying to record those locations earlier, but they're too sporatic. In fact, I think some of them shift position." Turns his attention back to the project at hand, picks up an already partially curled length of metal, and uses the strength that comes with his size to bend it all the way round. The produces an arc-welder from his arm to seal it up. "There we go. A few of these hooked up to the generator and an electromagnetic enducer coupling should do the trick. Grab some of those smaller shielding plates Vince, we'll make a casing around the generator to shield it from fields. Even if this doesn't work entirely, if we can get proof of concept it'll be a step in the right direction. How are the defense bunkers coming First Aid?" First Aid finishes work on the fourth and final blast shield for this area. "There, that should sufficiently serve it's purpose in this conflict. No doubt they'll be reduced to slag when this is all over, ahh ... the life of a maker. Constantly forced to watch our machinations destroyed." Dee-Kal glances up from her work and looks to First Aid. This time she taps at her yellow icon and gives a genial smile, shrugging. Nodding, Vince turns and picks up a couple of the smaller pieces Dee-Kal's been cutting out. "Nice clean cuts here, Dee-Kal." Taking the pieces, clutched in the hands of the Ares, he walks back to the trailer and starts looking at shielding the generator. "This metal might not keep enough of the magnetic interference out, Jetfire. We may need to hook it directly to the generator to get the desired effect." Glancing over at First Aid, Vince can't help but agree, but the human /lives/ for building and repairing things, really. "If everything we built lasted forever, First Aid, people like you and me would be forced to find different areas of employment." "And what problem does that propose?" First Aid asks Vince, obviously not delighted to be constantly fixing things. James Bailey drives out in a rugged EDC hover-jeep. He glances over Vince quickly, then nods at the Autobots. "Building some defensive emplacements?" He says, voice hinting at approval. "Good thinking, those worked pretty well on the campaigns on Earth." Jetfire nods his head a bit understandingly. "But if they serve their purpose in the meantime, at least its not a waste. Someday, the destroyed part won't be necessary. Someday... Those look good First Aid. If we do need to fight out here, our troops will be well protected." He hmms a bit, and nods to Vince as he works of making a few more tubes for launching. "Hopefully the combination of shielding and its own electromagentic field will protect it. It may very well break down after a few uses, but that's still possibly a few enemies less to deal with." While he works at getting the generator properly shielded from the magnetic forces in this area, Vince glances up at First Aid. "Well, I don't suppose it's really a problem, but I like fixing things. Helps me relax." Turning back to the work at hand, he uses the Ares' built in lasers, on the lowest setting, as a welder and fuses two pieces of the metal together, forming the bottom, and one side of the intended shielding around the generator. "Yeah, still, let's see about getting the most use of these things. How many generators do we have? I'd like to have at least two cannons, for maximum dispersal potential for the magnetic rocks." So wrapped up in his work, he barely notices James driving up, but he takes a moment to toss a wave at the Colonel. Dee-Kal looks up from her welding at the sound of a motor. She focuses; it's Bailey. It brings something to mind. Retracting her welder, the little Junkion leaves her work temporarily and approaches the jeep and its occupant. She inclines her head mildly in a small bow. Jetfire was so involved in the work and conversation he didn't even notice the hover-jeep until James says something. "Oh, hello there.... There should be a second generator in there, Vince. One on each side, with a small area of overlap inbetween? That would get the most coverage, and make the location just in front of the defensive line doubly dangerous." Having formed several tubes for the barrels of the launcher, the titan-sized scientist kneels down to help Vince with the framework. "A full offensive would be difficult in this location as it is, so better solidifying a defensive position against such a tactic is our most optimal choice of action," he explains passively to the newcomer. First Aid stalks off a ways to begin work on another section of blast shields, quite a ways from their original position. "Well, these won't build themselves. I shall rendeauvous with you all at Debris at a later time." he chiefly proclaims, tool-kit in hand. Pausing in his work for a couple of minutes, Vince appears to be thinking about something. In fact, he's doing some calculations in his head. Looking over the area thoughtfully, he speaks again after a few minutes. "If we can get these cannons to fire at least 150 feet up, and we put them there," He gestures at a spot just past where First Aid put up the first of the makeshift bunkers, "And over there," Again he motions, to a point about 300 yards away, "the interacting magnetic fields between the stones themselves, as well as all the varying fields along the path on the ground, would produce the maximum interference possible, in as many wave variations as I can think of." Yup, Vince is definitely more than just a mere exo-pilot, evidenced by his insane moment of geekery. But then, that fits right in with this group of people. Jetfire nods. "Right, like that." Extending a cutting torch from his arm he starts making openings in one side panel of the shielding structure to attatch the EM launchers and tubes. "The results will leave the Decepticons crippled and confused. Or at least that's the idea." Vince nods inside his exo, and goes back to work, finishing the shielding case for the first generator, and starting on the second. "Yeah, that's the idea. Hopefully it'll work exactly as intended. Even if it doesn't work perfectly, it should still do enough damage to any attacking force that they'll be forced to retreat in short order." As he talks, he pretty quickly finishes the casing for the second generator, and starts looking at ways to attach the tubing to get the proper firing arc, and maximum distance. Jetfire looks up for a moment to check on what Deek and First Aid are doing, then goes back to work. "Position them at the angle like you said, and spread them slightly to the sides so the shots scatter as we want instead of clumping together, or the point of distance cover is fairly moot otherwise." Is moot even a technical term? Well it is now! Dee-Kal reaches behind her back (green glow!) and produces a small festive parcel with a holly pattern from subspace. She shows it to James, then sets it in the back of the hovercar. The little Junkion smiles mildly, then returns to her work, her belated Christmas present duly delivered. Meanwhile James goes on to do background EDC type surveying or eating his sandwiches; whatever serves best to cover his player's exit for now. ^-^ Andi Lassiter arrives with a contingent of security and supplies, chatting amiably with the mech carrying her on his hand. It's been...oh, several million years since she was last on Cybertron. At least this time she doesn't have to worry about being without food. Nodding, Vince doesn't even look up from his work of attaching the 'barrels' to the generator, and hooking the generator up to ensure the desired effect is achieved. "Yeah. I think the magnetic rocks will do their own dispersal pretty well, just from all the varied magnetic fields in the area. This is gonna be one spectacular effect, if it works." Chuckling, he finishes his work on the generator and lifts the incredibly heavy machine. Luckily, the Ares' hydraulic systems and 'muscle-imitation' servo's are up to the task and he carries the makeshift defensive weapon over into place and looking for a way to conceal it, before he starts trying to 'load' it, for a test-fire. Jetfire stands up, waving to the gumbie and the human they're carrying. "I'm going to get some aerial 'shots', I'm curious to see just how the fields all interact with each other." As Vince carries the weapon into place with his exo, Jetfire jumps to the air and transforms, taking off into a slow circle over the vicinity to watch from an aerial vantage point. Though even he has trouble flying over the plains, he can at least hold on long enough to get a proper sweep of the results. Jetfire transforms into his Super Veritech Fighter mode. The little Junkion looks up at another sound and her wings *really* perk. It's HenryBot! And he's brought one of her favourite humans - Andi Lassiter! She pauses in her work yet again to wave to the latest arrivals happily. Busy putting the makeshift cannon in place, Vince doesn't notice the arrival of the gumby carrying Andi. His mind is entirely focused on the task at hand, and despite the twinges of pain in his cracked ribs, which he ignores for now, he gets the weapon placed and powered. Looking at the readings, he frowns and looks up at Jetfire, calling out to him. "With these electro-magnetic readings, we'll get 4, maybe 5 shots out of this thing, including the test fire, before the generator burns out. Lemme see if I can tweak this thing a bit. Shouldn't take more than a minute or two." And he immediately goes in to try to adjust the field being projected by the generator, to see if he can minimise power consumption, to get some more shots out of the thing. After a minute, he gives it up, though. "Well, it was an idea. I'd say 4 shots total, with potential for a 5th, if we're /really/ lucky. Let's see if it's gonna work right." Dropping in the magnetic rocks, he steps back behind the thing and prepares to activate it. "Firing in...3...2...1..." *BOOM* The weapon fires. (I'll leave the effects up to someone else. Hehe. ;) With a curiously eerie sound like a thousand angry Insecticons with migraines - the sort of sound Dirge would give his tail fins for - the mini missiles pepper the air! "That's still four shots of potentially halting an advance. Eight with two turrets," Jetfire replies as he slow circles overhead. "The generators can always be replaced, just not in middle of combat." Though with a proficient jury-rigger or two... The magnetic rocks launch through the air and scatter a bit, and occasionally a bit of a spark can be seen between them as the fields fluxate against each other. "A bit unpredictable trajectories, but that's probably to our advantage here, it'll make them unpredictable and hard to dodge. Especially if they try to magnetize to some Seeker's armor!", he laughs a bit at the end. Andi Lassiter watches the display of firepower, mentally noting the efficiency of the missile spread and the angle of trajectory for each group of mini-missiles, raising her eyebrows as the magnetic fields suddenly randomize everything. Someone with VERY good spatial awareness set that. She then notices the exo-unit and thanks the exo unit as he sets her down. "Hello, everyone!" Vince chuckles and grins at the successful test, and immediately moves to take the other one to it's intended place, noticing Andi for the first time, and throwing a wave her direction. "Hey Andi. Like the new toys we're putting in?" Picking up the second 'cannon', he starts walking it slowly towards it's spot, and begins to prepare for it's test-fire, after he gets it in place. "If we need to, Jetfire, we can move this one, I'll lock it down after we get the overlapping fields right. Ready for a test fire?" Super Veritech Fighter would nod if he was in robot mode. "Alright Vince, I'll leave you to do that. Let me know how the results turn out, and we can make modifications if necessary. I've got some other matters to take care of as well. Looks great from up here though, good work guys!" Making one final sweep of the area and feeling quite pleased with the results, the fighter banks away and once he's clear of the magnetic fields, full fires his thrusters and rockets off into the distance.